England's Waterways PR

The West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC) will help to create new jobs, expand existing businesses and attract new businesses and investment to the region, aligned to the ambitions set out in the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Strategic Economic Plan.

West Midlands Growth Company Ltd was established in April 2017. It continues to operate leisure and business tourism programmes Visit and Meet Birmingham, inward investment programme Business Birmingham and its partnership programme.

The project this work is supporting is England's Waterways which is a project developed as part of the Discover England Fund from Visit England. Offering funding to destinations to develop new products and increase inbound visitors to the rest of England outside the capital.

The canal rings and waterways of England present unique routes through city and countryside, inviting international visitors to explore and experience England by, and on, the rivers and canals. This concept aims to maximize these national assets focusing on the waterways as a key feature for the attraction and dispersal of visitors.

The England's Waterways project has three core aims: (a) product development - to increase bookable, commissionable products along the intuitive routes created by the waterways, creating unique, memorable English holidays which encourage repeat visits; (b) market development - to increase the knowledge of, and propensity to visit to 'England's Heartlands' through the travel trade supply chain; and (c) economic impact by using the waterways as the hook to increase the volume and value of visits across the seasons and upscaling the project across the English waterways.